Product Listing

ABIT AW9D-MAX (Intel 975X Express - Core 2 Ready)

By Zachary Chan - 4 Oct 2006

Overclocking and Test Setup

Overclocking

  • FSB Settings: 133MHz to 600MHz
  • RAM Frequency: DDR2-533, DDR2-667, DDR2-800
  • N/B Strap: PSB-533, PSB-800, PSB-1066
  • CPU Voltage Settings: 1.3250V to 1.7250V (in 0.0250V steps)
  • Memory Voltage Settings: 1.75V to 2.65V (in 0.05V steps)
  • MCH and PCIe Voltage Settings: 1.50V to 2.00V (in 0.01V steps)
  • Multiplier Selection: YES (for unlocked CPUs only)

Built as a performance gaming board, the AW9D-MAX has a pretty powerful BIOS through ABIT's micro-Guru controls for monitoring and overclocking. While not the most tweakable BIOS, it does offer excellent voltage and frequency granularity. With a N/B bus strap option, users have more memory divider options to choose from as well, despite the board only featuring DDR2-533,667 and 800 speeds by default. Strangely, PCIe frequency locking and controls are not provided.

The ABIT AW9D-MAX has already accumulated some hype from early sample boards that have reportedly been excellent overclockers. Our board however is a full retail unit loaded with the latest 1.2 retail BIOS. Testing the board with both the Core 2 Duo E6300 and Core 2 Extreme X6800, we were a disappointed that our AW9D-MAX could only reach a 360MHz base FSB. Using a similar setup, we've previously achieved a high of 480-490MHz on P965-based motherboards. This result however, historically matches what we've been able to squeeze out from the 975X/945P generation of chipsets. Both memory and processor clock speeds were well below their optimal settings so nothing else was holding the board back, but we were unable to attain the post 400+MHz overclocks on the AW9D-MAX that have been reported elsewhere.

CPU-Z Screenshot. Click for full size image.

Test Setup

An obvious choice for comparing the performance of the AW9D-MAX is current 975X Express heavy weight - the ASUS P5W DH. Since this is a Core 2 motherboards, we'll also be throwing in results from some of the high end P965 motherboards out there including the ASUS P5B Deluxe, Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 and MSI P965 Platinum.

Benchmarking test bed setup for all the boards are listed below.

  • Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor (2.93GHz)
  • 2 x 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 @ 12-4-4 CAS 4.0
  • Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB SATA hard disk drive (one single NTFS partition)
  • MSI GeForce 7900 GT 256MB - with NVIDIA ForceWare 91.47
  • Intel INF 8.1.1.1001
  • Intel Matrix Storage (AHCI) 6.1.0.1022 driver set
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (and DirectX 9.0c)


Additional Notes

MSI P965 Platinum has a memory timing anomaly, forcing CAS 3 reading through CPU-Z. However, our previous tests showed minimal impact on performance.


Benchmarks

The following benchmarks will be used in this article to determine the performance of the motherboards:

  • BAPco SYSmark 2004
  • Futuremark PCMark05
  • SPECviewperf 9.0
  • Futuremark 3DMark05
  • AquaMark3

 

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.